Contents This page: The Tibet of Kanagawa Prefecture How Mountainous? How Cold? How Remote? Quiz Time! During the 13-minute trip on the JR train from Takao to Fujino, how many tunnels do you pass through?

The Tibet of Kanagawa Prefecture I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, (U.S.A.) a city defined by mountain ranges, divided by a river, and connected by ten bridges, and perhaps that's part of the reason I immediately took to Fujino. Likewise surrounded by mountains, Fujino's northern and southern halves are divided by the Sagami River and joined by four bridges, while several smaller rivers and streams flow into the Sagami River and are crossed by their own bridges at various points within the town. Like Portland, Fujino is a "bridgetown." Some people call Fujino the "Tibet of Kanagawa Prefecture"; I'm not sure whether they're referring to the town's topography, climate, or distance from "civilization," but probably all three. The people who say this generally mean it derisively, but I think of it as a wry compliment. Yes, it is mountainous, cold in winter, and remote. I like that. How Mountainous? Well, nothing major, but you can't go very far without running into some kind of hill, and some spots in Fujino and neighboring Uenohara are even reminiscent of the shanshui landscapes typical along the Li River in Guilin, China. As I noted elsewhere, Fujino's elevation at the local JR station is about 210 meters (688 feet) above sea level, but the following mountains are within hiking distance around the northern border of the town: Renkyô-mine (1020m); Shôtôsan (990m), and of course the well-known Jinbasan (857m). Several other mountains in the 500-600m class are located in the south part of town, blending imperceptibly into the Tanzawa mountains which extend southwest toward Mount Fuji and its five lakes. How Cold? According to the official History of Fujino Township (Fujino chôshi), Fujino's year-round average temperature is 13.9° C, measured at the central part of town. The average yearly low is -5.5° and the average yearly high is 36.1°. The chôshi states that these figures represent a substantially different range from those recorded in other parts of the prefecture, and a graph is provided to back that up. The range of temperatures is typical of a Japanese bonchi (basin) climate, namely, hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It snows more than in Tokyo, obviously, and when it does snow, the cold temperatures often preserve drifts well into spring. Interestingly, the combination of Lake Sagami's moisture and the forested mountains are said to keep the relative humidity fairly even at about 70-75%, even in the "dry" months of winter. These are the figures for the central part of town, but Fujino's mountainous topography makes microclimates the rule, and much depends on what part of town you live in. Green Gables lies at an altitude of 225 meters (738 feet) about one kilometer distant from the JR station on the south side of the Sagami River valley. Since moving here in 1994, the coldest my high-low recording thermometers have measured is -12° C. That may be nothing for people on the eastern seaboard of the U.S., but for the Tokyo area, it represents Hokkaido-class chill, making us long all the more for spring's signs of life. As though in exchange for the cold, the winter skies are unbelievably clear, and excellent for star-gazing. We had a great view of the Leonid meteorite shower in November, 1998, as well as the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, and the more recent conjunctions of Venus and Mercury. I saw the rings around Saturn for the first time in my life.

Four Bridges Hilly Fujino "Mountain and Water" Landscape "Signs of Life"

Sagamiko-Fujino IC

How Remote? The remoteness quotient is greatly exaggerated. After all, how remote can a place be when it's got its own interchange on the Chûô Expressway? To give you an idea for purposes of comparison, though, here are some rough trekking times. Train Times from Fujino Station (all times in minutes) To Takao: 13 To Hachiôji: 20 To Shinjuku: 58 (Chûô Tokkai) to 80 minutes or more (worst possible scenario, bad connections, or when using Keio Line from Takao, etc.). To Tokyo Station: 73 (Chûô Tokkai) and up. Automobile times from Fujino IC To Hachiôji IC: 15 To Shinjuku IC: about 35-40 To Takao via Highway 20: 30 In matters of commuting convenience to the city, it is instructive to compare Fujino's situation with that of the Hachiôji area. Hachiôji may have more urban amenities, but outside the central station area it's not necessarily more convenient to Tokyo; some sections—parts of Akigawa or Takao, for example—require a 30-40 minute bus ride to Hachiôji station, and they are so distant from the Hachiôji IC that even under ordinary traffic conditions it can take as long, or longer, to get to and from Tokyo than it does from many parts of Fujino. But I have to admit it: JR's Chûô Honsen doesn't run that often, only about 3-4 trains per hour, sometimes less (the worst wait is at one point in mid-afternoon, when you could cool your heels at the station for forty-five minutes if you arrived at the worst possible time). So what does this mean? It means you pay more attention to the train schedule hanging under the magnets on your refrigerator than you did when you lived in Asagaya.Get over it. Next page: Life in a Northern Town

Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
by Norman Havens nhavens@gol.com
Updated: January 7, 2006

URL: http://www2.gol.com/users/nhavens/